This 70-year Index integrates the prior 30-year Index and expands it to include earlier years from 1932 and extends it further through 2001. Albert O. Hudson was the editor and died in 2000.
All Issue page numbers are hyperlinked to the BSM PDF page on which the specific Issue page appears. Clicking on the Issue and page number will open up the PDF in your default browser to the specific article page, and you can go forward and backward from there within the PDF. The LINKS menu of this Index contains hyperlinks to all full-year BSM files which can be viewed or downloaded.
The method used for page numbering the Bible Student Monthly (BSM) issues of 1932 to 1938 was different than that used for 1939 onward, so it was necessary to add continuous page numbering to the PDFs for 1932 to 1938. Note that Issue page numbers and PDF page numbers are very often not the same.
Most of the superscript coding that appeared in the previous 30-year BSM index has been left intact. See previous 30-year BSM index for explanation and key to those superscript codes. No similar attempt has been made to compare articles from earlier years (1932-1961) that are repeated later, nor to compare articles repeated in later years (1962-2001). For articles that were used from older Watch Tower issues, Reprint page numbers are provided either in italic parenthesis or added as a superscript notation.
The added and expanded entries for this 70-year index were based largely on the content of the annual index pages for 1939-1961 and 1992-2001, although the issues themselves were consulted to resolve discrepancies. And herein is probably the greatest deficiency with this index, because although a “Texts Expounded” section was usually a feature of the annual index page, for years 1943-1950 and 1953-1956 it was not included, resulting in either no or few entries for these years in the “Texts Expounded” section of this Index. Perhaps in the future, time will permit for a proper compiling of “texts expounded” for these years.
On the 2004 Annual Index Page, the editor commented that “expository, devotional, and short articles have not been separated out because it is felt these are unnecessary and artificial divisions.” Indeed it does appear that items here listed under Short Articles are hardly short at all; and often items listed under any one of these three categories could just as well have been placed in other category. So all three categories should be equally referenced for any topic of interest. Because there were so many poems, a new category of Poems has been included. Lastly, a new category of Monthly & Recurring Columns has been included.